Six Must-Play DS Visual Novels

Though they're barely games, these titles offer a veritable Reading Rainbow of enjoyment.

In Jeremy's post on the 3DS's recent sales surge, one of his points really stood out to me; namely, that the original DS popularized previously unknown (or recently nonexistent) types of games for an audience still trying to wrap their brains around the system's two screens and novel means of input. And while the genre in question hasn't yet reached the popularity of brain training, dog raising, or gentleman simulation (a la Professor Layton), without the DS, visual novels would still be one of those weird Japanese things we only hear about in whispers, riddles, and animes. Granted, most of the ones that don't make it to our shores feature doe-eyed, underage gals in various states of undress and helplessness, but that doesn't mean the genre's a total wash. Though a few stinkers wormed their way into an American release, the handful of quality visual novels for the DS certainly merits discussion -- which is why you're reading this very feature! Or having it read to you -- I'm not one to criticize Internet browsing habits of the criminally lazy.

Phoenix Wright hit the DS just as the platform couldn't feel any more gimmicky; as the system's owners found themselves unnaturally poking, tracing, or using that bizarre (and thankfully discontinued) thumb-nub, the idea of a lawyer game struck many as just another stab at pointless novelty. But those who stuck around to dig into Shu Takumi's creation soon discovered a world of affable goofballs and labyrinthine mysteries reined in by an obsessive devotion to internal logic. While the three Phoenix Wright games could have been fine as a collection of unrelated cases, each game successively builds on the murder of Phoenix's former partner and the various conspiracies surrounding her two sisters. Truthfully, the trilogy sags a bit in the second chapter (Justice for All), but the series brings a highly satisfying sense of closure to all of its dangling threads in Trials and Tribulations.

Phoenix Wright eventually saw two spiritual sequels with Apollo Justice and (former antagonist) Miles Edgeworth, though they didn't really carry the same sense of magic as the original trilogy -- but they're both highly playable, even if the latter does tend to ramble a bit. It's a shame Capcom doesn't have much faith in what's left of the series, as Apollo never saw a second game (despite planting roots which indicated possible sequels), and Edgeworth's second adventure won't ever see an English-language release. That said, you won't have to track down the original carts to play the Phoenix trilogy; the first one's on iOS, while all three can be found on WiiWare -- though the DS remains the best way to play them.

Where Phoenix Wright made me think, "Hmm, this Shu Takumi guy is onto something," Ghost Trick had me erecting a shrine to the man in my living room that I still have yet to explain to my roommates. While the game still requires quite a bit of reading, it's far less verbose than Wright, and the game elements on display are far meatier. Ghost Trick starts things off with a bang by immediately throwing the player into a particularly dire situation: you're a spirit with no memories, tasked with solving your own murder (and preventing the deaths of others) before inevitable ghost-death at sunrise.

Typical for a Takumi-penned game, Ghost Trick continually ups the stakes chapter-by-chapter, slowly adding new rules (and restrictions) to main character Sissel's ghost powers. It should be noted at this point that Takumi often flexes his genius by first establishing what seems like a simple set of mechanics, then playing with said ideas in inventive ways that prevent players from growing complacent. The main gimmick of Ghost Trick involves the protagonist's ability to inhabit inanimate objects and to jump back in time four minutes before a corpse's death, and each of these powers play off of each other in increasingly convoluted ways that can't help but make you grin like an idiot. I'd love to go into more detail, but the real fun of Ghost Trick lies in the art of surprise -- something few games do well, or at all.

Comments (61)

A small suggestion to the list...

If I may, there is another Visual Novel-type game; Lux-pain, one of the first I played besides Time Hollow . The game's localization can be confusing at times, as translation seemed rather poor, but that'll happen with any translated game. A game shouldn't be critisized for such a thing, and it irritates me that so many have rated it so low. After all, if you look past the translation issue and ignore it like I did, it's really a very good game with wonderful art, amazing music and an interesting storyline. I myself ended up crying at the end, as many others have, and I was never bored by it.

If I may ask, don't start flaming this post by saying it's a terrible game; sure, it's not for everyone, but it truly does deserve more credit for how good it is. I do love this list though, hopefully I can get my hands of one of the Ace Attorney's.

Visual Novels?

Why doesn't anyone want to use the classification "Adventure Game"? Also, there are so many great ones that you could have said at least a couple sentences about. Lux Pain, Trace Memory... Why not mention that the developers of 999 are working on another title with a similar premise? I think it was 1up who first cued me in on that.

Visual Novel: a game you mostly read that has accompanying visuals.

Although, I've been reading/playing visual novels before I'd even known that they could be released on the DS. So, really, I wouldn't exactly say the DS is what popularized them. (In my experience, at least.)

I own all of these

I think games like these really validate the DS as a system. So many games put the player into the role of a soldier; it's really refreshing to play games that have you as a lawyer or a doctor or a detective that doesn't spend all his time shooting people. It's also nice to have a story focused game that isn't am RPG. Good article, great games all.

Cool article

But the tense errors and run-on sentences are trying. Editors, observe:

"Phoenix Wright eventually saw two spiritual sequels with Apollo Justice and (former antagonist) Miles Edgeworth, though they didn't really carry the same sense of magic as the original trilogy -- but they're both highly playable, even if the latter does tend to ramble a bit."

becomes, in only the time it takes to say the sentence out loud to yourself:

"Phoenix Wright eventually saw two spiritual sequels with Apollo Justice and (former antagonist) Miles Edgeworth. Though they don't really carry the same sense of magic as the original trilogy, they're both highly playable, even if the latter does tend to ramble a bit."

1up's articles are starting to look more like forum posts. Please get serious about editing. Certain competing sites who have less to say are saying it better, and it sucks to have to choose readability over content.

Thanks 1up for years of left-field game coverage and thought provoking features and editorials. :)

I think

Like Visual Novels?

These are all great suggestions but we shouldn't forget about the visual novel scene outside of the DS (I'm aware this isn't the point of the article but jus' saying :p).

In particular, Christine Love is doing some really fascinating stuff with them. "Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story" and "Digital" are really fascinating works in the genre and they're remarkably well written. Plus, they're free!

Great article!

I have played all of these, but I never finished Hotel Dusk (I was drinking a lot those days)

It's neat too see all the comments following, concerning the "Visual Novel" a'la western-standpoints. In earnest, while I absolutely love the majoirty of these games, I can see why they fail to hatch a root. It's nothing "dumb" or anything about western gamers, but I think the identity of "entertainment" is intensely embedded into the title of "videogame," and that most western consumers simply expect the type of entertainment that only regular videogames can offer.

An interesting argumentation, of a sort, or defense, in my case, was in last months game informer. The author behind the infinity blade novel (Brandon Sanderson? I'm not sure) was saying how, while he loves writing videogame novels, he doesn't believe in the virtual novel. Rather, that there is no need to provide any sort of gimmickry to a literature-based concept, as literature, in book form (classic or digitial, whatever) is a solid concept that is effectively infinite. And while I normally take a radical stance on practically anything, to that assesment I do agree, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the games listed here. While I don't say any of these games have shortcomings, and that spending money on them is certainly not a waste, at the same time, in a schizophrenic-type retaliation, I can see how it is. In earnest, 999 is essentially a "make your own adventure" book that, while it does sport some very beautiful anime-based graphics and styling, could still have been equally as great, if not better, if it had entirely been left up to the imagination.

Well...

This is probably true in some cases. A number of visual novels would probably work alright as text, or even as anime or other works. Pheonix Wright's been adapted into a musical, after all.

On the other hand, there are some works that I think could only work as visual novels. For example: the plot of Ever17, a visual novel for the PC by the same writer of 999, would be impossible in any other format. The genre's been around long enough, I think, that it's developed its own set of tricks unique to the medium. I think that often the atmosphere of visual novels helps a lot too when it comes to keeping the viewer enthralled. The writing of, say, the Higurashi series might not always be that strong, but the music coupled with the textual mind games is enough to be incredibly stressful and disturbing at the best of times.

(Higurashi is another visual novel series I'd reccomend, by the way, although it's almost prohibitavely expensive in the US and the translation is inferior in every concievable way to any of the entires on this list. So yeah, maybe not)

Play first, play later...

VNs

I really need to get Corpse Party and 999, they sound like the sort of thing I would love. I really wish the visual novel got a little bit more respect in the west. I've only read a few outside of the ones in this article, but among them were Saya no Uta, which I felt was the best horror narrative I'd ever seen, and Fate/Stay Night, which is on the same tier as Watchmen in my opinion, I liked it a little more actually because it had the chance to spend more time developing the characters. The combination of text, sound, and visuals is just a really compelling way to present a story and it's kind of weird how a lot of western gamers are so strongly opposed to it for some reason.

Actually, there was a spin-off of Fate/Stay Night released in English recently for the PSP by Aksyss called Fate/Extra that I would recommend to anyone still actually playing their PSP. As a spin-off it's lost some of it's purity as a Visual Novel, but it's still got that as it's core, with dungeon crawling very similar to Persona laid on top. Not only is this a good game (so far, I'm only through the first 5 of 7 enemies), but getting it also has the nifty bonus of encouraging Aksyss to both bring over more VNs in general, and hopefully bring over more stuff from Type-Moon, the company that has the license on the Fate series.

Amen.

I need to play Ghost Trick, 999, and Corpse Party. Haven't played Saya no Uta, but I know Fate/zero and Peulla Magi Madoka Magica, both by teh same writer, Gen Urobuchi, and I'm kinda terrified of reading another of his works; they're excellent, but horribly scarring.

Fate/stay night is one of teh best thing ever, period, and I agree that it may be better than Watchmen (as crazy as that is); Fate/extra is great so far. Hilariously, 1up has no file for Fate/extra. Totally worth playing, though; it does a suprisingly good job of translating teh insane complexity of teh Holy Grail War, and Kinoko Nasu (main writer and founder of Type-MOON)'s magic system, into something playable. Awesome story and characters, too.

I love Cing.

Their games have a relaxed pace and welcoming atmosphere about them, not to mention sweet jazz. The Hotel Dusk series has some of the best character writing in any game, and Another Code: R is an excellent, well-natured mystery game that is all the better if you've played the original.

I admit, AGAIN was not a good game, but I'm glad I played it as a Cing fan. I even own Glass Rose for PS2 but have yet to play it.

Me hate reading, derp derp derp

You're an ass, you know that? We all have video game genres we like and don't like, and that's fine. But just because you don't like a genre doesn't make it cool to go trolling articles about it. I don't care much for FPS's, but I recognize the fact that some people do, and I'm not about to go to every article about Halo or whatever and declare them to be "not real games".

Really?

If you actually play these games, I think you'll find Phoenix Wright and Ghost Trick in particular wouldn't work as anything but games. Or in any case, wouldn't be nearly the same. If you take away the elements of player interaction, you lose some investment in the story. For example, in Phoenix Wright, finding a contradiction and pointing it out yourself is far more exhilarating than watching someone else do it.

Welp

The Phoenix Wright series is one of my favorites of all time, and really got me turned on to this type of game. Couldn't get an hour into Hotel, just to boring for my taste. I really want to play ghost trick and 999 though, they look fantastic

No such thing as a must play visual novel

1. They all suck especially Hotel Sucks and 9 Hours (of reading apparently).2. Ghost Trick doesn't count because (although talky) there is actually more gameplay than reading and doesn't bore me to tears.3. If I want to read I'd get a book. I buy video game consoles to PLAY games, not read them.4. Only a seriously asskissing video game journalist who gets his stuff for free from the publishers would slobber over these "games"

If you don't like them...

If you don't like these types of games, why even bother reading a topic about them? Unless you have a valid argument supportable by unambiguous facts to prove that these are bad games, there's nothing you can bring to a blog post about them...

I don't understand people like you...if you don't like candy, do you go to a candy store and complain about how bad candy tastes? Other people enjoy these games so leave them to it and go read about things you DO like.

Because...

...the reader of the article implies that visual novels are good (even though Ghost Trick is NOT a visual novel because there is more gameplay than reading). What's wrong with providing a contradiction in the comments. He makes a point and then I make a different one. Why get bent out of shape because I make a comment arguing against the article. If YOU don't like my comments then don't read them.

Objection!

A contradiction is created by a discrepancy between FACTS. Your "contradiction" is based on whether or not the genre is "good" or in other words, an OPINION. Therefore your argument is null and void. FUTHERMORE! You insist that we not read your comments. Yet by that logic, I suggest that you shouldn't have read this article, as based on the title alone and your aversion to the visual novel genre, you should have been aware that you would disagree with the opinions presented, and therefore had nothing to acomplished but to be obnoxiously contrary.

Played almost all these

havent played ghost trick or 999 yet. but i'm dying to find time past all these console/pc releases as of late. Any recommendations on which I should start first? Or if I had to choose one which is better?

Anyway, I loved Hotel Dusk and its noir down-to-earth setting, but the Ace Attorney games take the cake for me with their very unforgettable characters and riveting cases (especially the last ones of each game). In fact the phoenix wright trilogy is in my top 25 favorite games ever because of the amazing sense of attachment I got from the script and humor. Also, the 3rd game T&T was the best in my opinion.

999 hands down

Ghost Trick

I got drawn right into Ghost Trick. Maybe I was burnt out after playing it and couldn't get innto 999 as fast. I'm sure it will be a great game when I get back to it. I have heard great reviews, which is why I bought it. I really liked Ghost Trick, and that is the one I played first.

Wait...

You can play import DS games on the DSi, DSiXL and 3DS, as long as they don't have DSi-Only features or some other region locking (Sonic Classic Collection for example). I've only tried one game on my handhelds though, a Japanese copy of Jump Superstars on my US DSi and 3DS. That works, and according to another commenter so does Last Window.

999

Is an overlooked gem that everyone should try. That game had me glued to my DSi and couldn't wait on what happened next, the only other games that do that to me are the pokemon games. I'll say it but 999 is probably the best from all of these, it's a bit text heavy but really addictive. It has an engrossing story, interesting characters with different backgrounds, interesting setting and a sense of clausetrophobia. I hope the spiritual successor comes over here, so do yourself a favor, try this game I'm sure you'll love it. As for Hotel Dusk, that game was so cool and I loved the artstyle, might have to import the sequel.

Agreed

Especially because it's the rare occasion where the original import of the game (JH: Detective Chronicles) was blasted for being an inferior localization and omitting over half of the game, causing Aksys to take another look at it, fix both of the above, and re-release it properly. Most companies would have just said, "Oops, we done goofed!" and never bothered with that much effort.